Pretoria - Controversial Mamelodi businessman Vusi “Khekhe” Mathibela has turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, in an urgent bid not to be detained at the C-Max section of Kgosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria, while awaiting his sentencing later this month.
He and his co-accused were convicted in June for the murder of billionaire businessman Wandile Bozwana, who was gunned down at the Garsfontein offramp in Pretoria east in October 2015.
Their sentencing procedure is expected to start on September 20.
Mathibela first approached the court in June – shortly before he and his co-accused were convicted – after Correctional Services at that stage moved him from the normal awaiting-trial section of the prison to C-Max.
No reason was given for this, but the department said it assessed detainees from time to time and it was within its right to do so.
Mathibela at that stage complained that he was still an awaiting-trial prisoner and entitled to be incarcerated with the other trial-awaiting prisoners in a less restrictive environment.
The court in June agreed with him and Correctional Services were ordered to remove him from C-Max.
But that never happened, as the departments said the court order they received from the registrar of the court, did not coincide with the actual order issued by the judge.
The discrepancy was that the order they had received stated that the department had to pay Mathibela’s legal costs for the urgent application on a punitive scale, while the actual order by the judge did not mention a punitive scale.
While aggrieved by the fact that he still remained in C-Max, Mathibela again turned to court for an order holding the officials of the department in contempt of court for not moving him out of the maximum security section. He asked the court to imprison the officials for 30 days if they did not immediately relocate him.
The department explained that it did not ignore the order on purpose, but was waiting for the correct court order to reach it.
But it meanwhile emerged that after Mathibela’s murder conviction, it again reassessed him and decided C-Max was where he should remain.
Correctional Services argued that Mathibela’s circumstances had changed since he turned to court in June to be remanded with other trial- awaiting prisoners and for security reasons it decided he should remain here. Counsel for Mathibela argued that perhaps he was now a convicted prisoner, but the fact remained that he was still a remand detainee as his criminal trial was not concluded.
It was argued on his behalf that the department was in contempt of the June court order, where a judge ordered that he be moved from C-Max.
Judge Elizabeth Kubushi, however, commented that Mathibela’s circumstances had changed after his conviction and that the department was within its rights to classify him as a high-risk inmate who had to remain in C-Max.
The judge made it clear that the finding she made did not mean the court agreed or not with the new decision that he had to remain in C-Max.
The court merely agreed that the department was entitled to reassess his security reclassification in light of the fact that his circumstances had now changed.
Heavy security has prevailed in court each time Mathibela, alongside Sipho Hudla Matamela, Robert Mutapa and Bonginkosi Paul Khumalo, appeared in court for the Bozwana murder. Heavily armed and often masked members of the SAPS Tactical Response Unit keep a watchful eye on him in court and they line the sides of the courtroom, which lead to the exits.
Up until his bail was revoked and he was remanded in custody, Mathibela sported his own security team in court, who followed him everywhere and kept a watchful eye on him while in the dock.
Pretoria News